Marmara University

Faculty of Engineering

PHYS 1104
PHYSICS LABORATORY II

Ohm’s Law and Resistivity of a

Conductor

Section:
Group:
Instructure: Date:
Department Student Id Number Name & Surname
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Ohm’s Law and Resistivity of a Conductor

1 Purpose
To become familiar with the use of the voltmeter and the ammeter to measure DC voltage and
current. In addition, to test the validity of Ohm’s law. To determine the resistivity of several
materials.

2 Theory
According to Ohm’s law, the voltage across a resistor is proportional to the current passing
through it:

Figure 1: Simple Circuit

V = IR (1)
where the ratio of the voltage (V) over the current (I) is called the resistance (R). The unit of
resistance is ohm, which is equal to one volt per ampere.
Most physical quantities of a material can be characterized as being either intrinsic or extrinsic
properties. An intrinsic property is a property of a material that does not depend on the
amount of material present. An extrinsic property, on the other hand, does depend upon the
amount of material present. For example, all blocks of copper have the same density, since
they are made of the same material, but different blocks can have different masses. Density is
thus an intrinsic property. Mass, however, is an extrinsic property. A similar relationship exists
between resistance and resistivity for an object when an electric current is passed through it.
The resistivity, like the density, depends on the type of material. Every block of copper has the
same resistivity. The resistance, like the mass, depends on how much of the material is present.
The relationship between the resistance and the resistivity can be summed up by the following
formula: In SI unit system, ohm (Ω) symbol is used for defining the resistance.

ρl
R= (2)
A

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Ohm’s Law and Resistivity of a Conductor

3 Experimental Setup

3.1 Equipment List

1. Board x1
2. Copper Wires x2
3. Aluminum Cromel wire x1
4. Dc voltage source x1
5. Digital multimeter x2
6. Connection cables 40cm x2
7. Banana Plug to Crocodile Alligator Clip x4
8. Rheostat x1

Figure 2: Circuit diagram

4 Procedure
1. Measure and record the length of each wire with ruler.
2. Measure and record the diameter of each wire with micrometer for cross-sectional area.
3. Connect the ammeter and rheostat (a variable resistor) in series to the terminals of the
voltage source (5 volts).
4. Connect the voltmeter to the terminals of the wire in parallel.
5. Obtain different current values by changing the position of the slider on rheostat.
6. Read the potential differences across the wire from the voltmeter for each current value
and record them.
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Ohm’s Law and Resistivity of a Conductor

7. Calculate the resistance and resistivity for each measurement using equations 1 and 2.
8. Plot voltage versus current graph for each table.
9. According to equation 1, the slope of this graph gives average resistance value.
10. Repeat these steps for different type and diameter of wires given to you.

Type of Diameter Length Type of Diameter Length

Wire (m) (m) Wire (m) (m)

V(v) I(A) R(Ω) ρ(Ω.m) V(v) I(A) R(Ω) ρ(Ω.m)

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2
3
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Type of Diameter Length Type of Diameter Length

Wire (m) (m) Wire (m) (m)

V(v) I(A) R(Ω) ρ(Ω.m) V(v) I(A) R(Ω) ρ(Ω.m)

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2
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Ohm’s Law and Resistivity of a Conductor

Figure 3: Voltage versus current graph. (Unit is 2 mm)

Slope (average resistance) = ....................... Ω

Experimental Resistivity = ....................... Ω.m

Theoretical,Resistivity = ....................... Ω.m

% error of resistivity = .......................